One of the standout films from last fall’s Venice Film Festival is finally set for release this month. Director Ibrahim Nash’at spent a year deeply embedded within the Taliban’s inner circle following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. This period saw the Taliban reclaim power and take possession of the numerous, costly remnants left behind by the U.S. government. The result is “Hollywoodgate,” a fascinating, often wild, and occasionally humorous documentary that explores the shifting dynamics of power. Ahead of its theatrical release on July 19, the first trailer has been unveiled.
The synopsis of “Hollywoodgate” reads: “Unprecedented and audacious, HOLLYWOODGATE is the riveting result of the year director Ibrahim Nash’at spent with the Taliban in the wake of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Risking his life in the war-torn nation, Nash’at is on the ground with the Taliban when they enter an American base loaded with a portion of the roughly $7 billion worth of U.S. armaments left behind. Driving towards an astonishing and chilling end, Nash’at tracks Taliban leaders as they attempt to transform from a fundamentalist militia into a modern military regime, employing Hollywood-style propaganda to achieve their goals.”
Rory O’Connor, in his Venice review, remarked, “If you witnessed the chaos unfold in Kabul airport two years ago, it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to learn the US Army left a helicopter or two in Afghanistan. More alarming might be the news, calmly delivered at the start of this profoundly unreassuring documentary, that the cache of weapons and equipment that remains is estimated to be worth somewhere in the region of $7,000,000,000. In Hollywoodgate, an out-of-competition premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, the Egyptian journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at risks life and limb to achieve the improbable: nestling his way in with the Taliban fighters in charge of an abandoned U.S. base and observing their attempts to utilize what the Army left behind. ‘The Americans left us an enormous treasure,’ one General observes; Nash’at’s film offers a worrying insight into what they might decide to do with it all.”
The trailer for “Hollywoodgate” has been released, providing a chilling glimpse into this moment in Afghanistan’s history. The documentary premiered at the 2023 Venice and Telluride Film Festivals to positive reviews and also played at the Woodstock, Zurich, and Stockholm Film Festivals. “Hollywoodgate,” which has no direct connection to Hollywood, is Egyptian director Ibrahim Nash’at’s unprecedented and audacious look at the Taliban’s transition from an insurgent militia into a military regime. Immediately after the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, Taliban forces occupied the Hollywood Gate complex, a former CIA base in Kabul. Helicopters and fighter jets that were thought to be destroyed now lethally bomb the opposition, creating untold collateral damage in the process. The use of international documentarians for propaganda purposes is now underway. Over the course of one year, this documentary exposes their transformation using these supplies and “employing Hollywood-style propaganda to achieve their goals.” It is a truly brave film about propaganda.
“Hollywoodgate” is directed by acclaimed Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at, marking his feature directorial debut after one other short film. It is produced by Shane Boris, Talal Derki, and Odessa Rae. The film initially premiered at the 2023 Venice and Telluride Film Festivals. Fourth Act Film will debut the “Hollywoodgate” documentary in select U.S. theaters starting July 19th, 2024.
The documentary has earned numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC, Best Documentary at the Adelaide Film Festival in Australia, two awards at the El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, and a top award from the Zurich Film Festival, among other honors. The Taliban fighters who invited Nash’at to record their takeover of the CIA base thought he was shooting material that would show them in a heroic light. “With Ibrahim, they were sure that what he was filming fit exactly their own propaganda [purposes],” producer Talal Derki told Deadline. “They don’t know the structure of making documentary, where the focus can go, and how the filmmaker can build his film at the end of the day. So, of course, they missed that.”
Despite this, the Taliban always viewed Nash’at with a degree of suspicion. “You can read the eyes, and the eyes were never fully trusting,” the director said in an interview with Deadline at Telluride. Filming brought daily anxiety, he said. “Fear was always there and you try, every morning, to hide the fear.”
Nash’at, a native Arabic speaker, spoke a different language from his Taliban subjects (who spoke Pashto or another non-Arabic tongue). It wasn’t until well after filming ended, when a translation was completed, that Nash’at realized a Taliban commander had threatened to have him shot. “We discovered it in the editing process when the translation was happening,” he said, “and it was shocking.”
“Hollywoodgate” is a Rolling Narratives production, in association with Jourzour Film Production, Cottage M, and RaeFilm Studios. Producers are Derki — the Oscar-nominated director of “Of Fathers and Sons” — and Oscar winners Odessa Rae and Shane Boris (“Navalny”). The director of photography is Ibrahim Nash’at. Atanas Georgiev (“Honeyland”) and Marion Tuor edited the film; music is by Volker Bertelmann. Executive producers include Mehmet Elbanna, Sahraa Karimi, Diane Becker (“Navalny”), Katherine Embiricos, Jim and Susan Swartz, and Melony and Adam Lewis, and Ken Howery. Co-executive producers are Geralyn White Dreyfous, Poppy Jaimie, Heba Khaled, Steven Cohen, Paula Froehle, Hussain Currimbhoy, and Catherine Carmody.
In the film, the emboldened Taliban, now securely back in power, are shown being courted by emissaries from China, Russia, and other countries. And in one disturbing scene, Taliban leaders threaten to invade neighboring Tajikistan; military aircraft left by the U.S. makes the regime a more formidable threat.
The U.S. spent an estimated $2.3 trillion to fight in Afghanistan, in what became known as a “forever war.” Almost 2,500 U.S. military personnel were killed there. The legacy of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is among the vital questions raised by “Hollywoodgate.”
“The film is made with the purpose of trying to make the world understand what’s going on in Afghanistan and make them understand the effect of the ‘forever war’ mentality that was there for 20 years,” Nash’at told Deadline. “It was made upon promises of ending terrorism and saving the people of Afghanistan and none of these things, none of these promises were met and actually the opposite — those guys [the Taliban] now have way more weapons. And the mentality of the forever war has led to where we are now, and we need to question the foreign policy — the idea of using weapons to solve problems.”
Source: Deadline, Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival
